![]() The 1980s saw the advent of new technologies that profoundly changed the world of photography - one-hour color film processing, single-use cameras from competitors, videotape camcorders, and, in the 1990s and 2000s, digital cameras. Polaroid was forced to make wholesale changes that included having to fire thousands of workers and close many factories. In 1984 Polaroid announced "that it would enter the United StatesĮlectronic video market with its own line of Polaroid videotapes." In the 1980s, Polaroid tried to reinvent itself without Land at its helm by shifting away from a dependence on consumer photography, a market that was in steady decline. The underlying technology of Polavision was later improved for use in the Polachrome instant slide film system. The Polavision debacle eventually caused the company to write off $89 million, including most of the manufactured products. After four decades as chairman, Edwin Land was coerced into resigning and leaving the corporation he had founded. Thus it failed to sell well in retail stores and has been described as the swan song for Polaroid. ![]() However, the product arrived on the market when videotape-based systems were rapidly gaining popularity. In 1977, Land introduced the Polaroid Instant Home Movie camera named Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process. The court ruled in favor of Polaroid and ordered Kodak to cease instant picture production, plus pay Polaroid $909.5 million of the $12 billion it had asked for. Polaroid asked for $12 billion for infringements of its patents by Kodak. The suit in federal court lasted 10 years. In the two years that followed the lawsuit, total sales of instant cameras climbed from 7.4 million cameras in 1976 to 10.3 million in 1977 and 14.3 million in 1978. When Kodak announced instant film cameras in 1976, Polaroid announced they were suing them, accusing Kodak of having stolen its patented instant photography process. The landmark Streamline Moderne style structure would be added to the National Register of Historic Places listings in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1982. In the 1940s, Polaroid purchased the B B Chemical Company building at 784 Memorial Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts for its headquarters. Land was pictured on the cover of Life magazine in 1972 with the inscription, "A Genius and His Magic Camera". He gave the first public demonstration of his new Land Camera in February 1947 from then until 1972, the user had to release the film manually, pull a tab, and peel the negative from the finished positive print-the first version to eliminate these intermediate steps was the SX-70 of 1972, which ejected the print automatically. ![]() Recognized by most as the father of instant photography, he included all the operations of a darkroom inside the film itself. Kodak was a customer for some of Land's polarizing products. He headed the Polaroid Corporation, developing it from a small research and marketing firm into a well known high-tech company. During World War II, Polaroid designed and manufactured numerous products for the armed services including an infrared night viewing device. Polaroid, owning patents to its polarizer technology, got its start by employing polarization in products that included 3-D movies and protective goggles for military dogs. Land later returned to Harvard to continue his research. Land, having completed his freshman year at Harvard University, left to pursue this market, resulting in Polaroid's birth. Polaroid’s initial market was in polarized sunglasses - spawned from Land’s self-guided research in light polarization. It has been described by The Boston Globe as a "juggernaut of innovation", and "the Apple of its time" with a "leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the founding CEO for four decades". The original Polaroid Corporation was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Edwin Land and George W. Polaroid logo from 1962 to 1991, designed by Paul Giambarba Polaroid 80B Highlander instant camera made in the USA, circa 1959 Polaroid 3000 Speed Type 47 Rollfilm Expired June 1962 Polaroid Automatic 350 instant camera, made from 1969 to 1971, MSRP $150 Polaroid 430 Land Camera Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera model 2 instant camera, made in the USA circa 1972 to 1974 Polaroid Sun Autofocus 660 instant camera, circa 1987 Polaroid OneStep Autofocus SE instant camera, made in the United Kingdom circa 1997 Polaroid Snap Android smartphone ![]() This section needs expansion with: Content on the firms introduction of revolutionary instant photography which is completely absent from this history. ![]()
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